Semiconductor metrology generally involves measuring various physical features of a fabricated semiconductor component. For example, structural and material characteristics (e.g. material composition, dimensional characteristics of structures and films such as film thickness and/or critical dimensions of structures, overlay, etc.) associated with various semiconductor fabrication processes can be measured using semiconductor metrology tools.
Once a measurement is obtained using a semiconductor metrology tool, the measurement may be analyzed to determine whether it is abnormal. An abnormal measurement may be one that is unexpected, such as one that differs from an expected measurement derived from a model of the semiconductor component. In the past, abnormal measurements have either been disregarded or have been manually analyzed to determine their root cause.
Disregarding an abnormality is generally problematic since it may result in the fabrication of semiconductor components that that are deficient in terms of the specification given by the model. However, manually analyzing the abnormal measurement to determine its root cause is difficult and time consuming, since typically a person would be required to test the numerous parameters involved in the semiconductor fabrication process, one or more of which could be causing the abnormality. There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.